


A Simple Story

by Weisse_Rose



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Allegory, Fairy Tale Style, Freeform, Johnlock - Freeform, M/M, That just sort of ... happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-19
Updated: 2014-04-19
Packaged: 2018-01-20 00:40:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1490350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weisse_Rose/pseuds/Weisse_Rose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time...</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Simple Story

“Now, it's a simple story.

I have found and truly believe that there is nothing so bad it cannot be made better with a story. And this one's got a happy ending. 

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful black-haired prince. He was not first in line to become king, for he had an older brother, who was ambitious and had a knack for the intricacies of politics.

The prince was content with his fate because all he wanted to do in life was to know every little thing there was to know in the whole wide world.

The other children did not understand or share this desire and so he spent his days alone.

But he did not despair in his loneliness. Instead, he built a magnificent castle to hold all the knowledge that existed in the world. And no-one could ever destroy or take it from him, for he built it in the safety of his mind.

And for a long time, he was happy, alone in the vast halls of his mind castle, for he had never had a friend and thus never missed what he did not know. 

Then one day, out of the blue, a knight stood at the gate to his castle.

Unlike the others, who had turned away when they saw the deep moat and the thick shrubbery of thorns that protected the castle, the knight did not walk away.

He swam through the water and walked through the thorns, even though they scratched his face and hurt his pride.

And suddenly, the prince realized that he was no longer alone in his castle.

He poked and prodded the knight to understand why he had swum through the water and walked through the thorns, but the knight never budged. 

And the prince could not figure out why the knight had come and it intrigued him.

He decided to show the knight all the rooms in his castle and with them, all the wisdom in the world.

And the knight praised his brilliance and the prince's eyes shone bright in the darkness of the castle.

And then one day, on a day that was not particularly special in any other way, the prince understood that no matter how much he poked and prodded, the knight would never leave his castle. And that day he fell in love with the knight. 

The prince did not tell the knight about this because he never realized what had happened.

The knight, on the other hand, had always known his own heart, from the first day he lay eyes on the castle.

But he was foolish and told himself that this was not the way of the world.

In truth, he believed himself unworthy of the prince, for the knight had returned wounded from battle and would never fight in armour again.

And so he never told the prince the truth about his heart either.

Instead he watched the prince with a glowing pride in his eyes while he showed him all the rooms in the magnificent castle.

And the knight made a vow in the privacy of his own mind, to always protect the prince, for he saw that the prince was strong in so many ways but terribly weak in others.

Then, one sunny day, the prince fell from the high wall of the castle and the knight could not find him.

All around him the walls began to crumble, for you have to remember that the castle only existed in the prince's mind and without him there was no castle.

The knight sat in the ruins of the castle for a very long time until a beautiful lady found him and took him away. 

And even though he loved her with all his heart, the knight would never forget the prince and his castle, and he would never again be as happy as he had been within its walls. 

And on a day that was not remarkable in other way, the prince stood before him once more. 

And the knight knew that he could never forgive him, yet they became friends again, for there are things in this world that cannot be kept apart.

Much later, on the day that the knight and the lady were to be wed, the prince made a terrible discovery.

Because he had never before given his heart to somebody else for safekeeping, he had not seen the simple truth until it was too late.

And thus he vowed to always protect the knight and the lady, as the knight had protected him. 

But they did not live happily ever after. 

For the lady was a witch in disguise and one night poisoned the prince in his sleep.”

“Mary is not an evil witch!”

“I never said _evil_. Don't interrupt.

And so it came to pass that the prince stood before the eternal gates and looked upon the face of Death.

And Death spoke to him thusly, _Will you come willingly?_ and the prince said, _Yes_ , for there was nothing left in the world that bound him and he imagined it would be nice to be finally free from thought.

And Death said, _Aren't you forgetting something?_ , and the prince realized that the knight was in grave danger and awoke once more to the world of the living. 

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the world, a powerful magical storm had been gathering.

It loomed tall over the disc of the world and twisted and turned this way and that. 

It seldom destroyed the villages and the forests in its path, it was content with simply being feared for its power.

Then, one day, it started hunting the witch, for she had used dark magic in the past.

The prince saw that the knight would give his life to protect her, so he hid her in the cellar of his castle where she was safe. For the castle had not truly crumbled but travelled with the prince the entire time.

And the storm howled against the walls of the mighty castle, but the castle had been built with white magic and it was as strong and powerful as the storm.

And so the storm and the castle struggled until both were only whispers and ash in the air.

And on that day, the knight realized that the prince would sacrifice everything he had to keep him safe.

Now, I am by no means an expert in the art of storytelling, but I will tell you this: The end of this story is not that the knight and the witch lived happily ever after.

And if you two keep insisting that this is the end to the story, I will tell it to you again. And again. And again, until you understand it. 

For I have told you in the beginning that the story had a happy ending. And I will not have you two make a liar out of me.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally a small part of dialogue in a completely different story, which was about witness protection, telepathy & meddling Mycroft. Then this part got a bit out of hand, and I decided to let it stand on its own instead. I honestly have no idea how (or why) this thing happened, so please (pretty please) let me know what you think.


End file.
